University students, faculty members and community members gathered to discuss issues about the minimum wage of University employees during a forum that took place in Memorial Gymnasium last Saturday.

The forum was organized by U.Va. Workers and Students United and members of the University and Charlottesville communities, said Erin Franey, a student leader of U.Va Workers and Students United.

The forum was organized in two parts. The first part addressed what comprised a living wage, and the second part regarded what those present could do to work toward making a just wage policy a reality at the University. Each part of the forum included multiple speakers and small group discussions.

“We had two main goals for the forum,” Franey said. “We wanted everyone who came to learn something new about living wage at U.Va in 2010; we also wanted to create concrete plans of action to begin building momentum and awareness amongst our community and to start building a positive relationship with president-elect Sullivan. I think both were achieved.”

Currently, the University’s minimum wage for employees stands at $10.14 an hour, which proponents of the living wage movement argue is not enough to care for oneself and a family, which is the second-highest rate in the state, just behind George Mason University. At the University, less than 2 percent of full-time, academic employees earn less than $11.71 an hour.

The living wage issue historically has been a controversial topic at the University. In April 2006, 17 students were arrested for trespassing during a sit-in at Madison Hall.

Though Franey — now in her third year — has participated in conversations about living wage since her first year, she said the impending transition of the University’s leadership to Teresa A. Sullivan makes this an appropriate time to take action on the issue.

“I and others feel a great sense of hope that President-elect Sullivan will collaborate with us to make sure our university pays each worker, direct and contracted employees, a living wage,” she said.
Some students, however, disagree with the forum’s goals, noting that the University has several financial concerns and directing more funding to addressing the living wage issue may prove detrimental.

“A student told me before the forum that in the present financial crisis, the University must spend its money on projects that will tangibly benefit the school,” said Greg Casar, a student leader of U.Va. Workers and Students United.

Other factors that potentially complicate the issue include whether the University can legally force its contractors to pay their employees a living wage. Moreover, because different positions necessitate different pay-grades, it could be difficult to establish a standard across the entire University.

Overall, the forum was successful in moving, challenging and engaging for those present, Franey said.

“I think those who showed up learned some new things about living wage and how they could participate in this movement and get others involved,” she said.

Stephanie DeWolfe, who also serves as a student leader of U.Va Workers and Students United, agreed that the event was a success.

“It was a great turnout and everyone was engaged,” she said. “People were very open in sharing their thoughts and hesitations, and overall, I think everyone left having learned something.”

Former Honor Committee Chair David Truetzel addressed the Committee for the last time Sunday night, as the newly elected leadership prepares to take the reins. Photo by Mallory Noe-Payne.

At the current Honor Committee’s final meeting Sunday night, outgoing Chair David Truetzel announced the results of this weekend’s elections for the new executive board, as well as looked back upon his year within the Committee.

Law student Charlie Harris was elected the new chair at the Committee’s internal retreat. Accompanying him will be third-year Architecture student Danielle MacGregor as vice chair for community relations and Graduate Education student Maggie Thornton as the vice chair of education. Meanwhile, second-year Nursing student Page Dunbar will serve as vice chair for investigations, and third-year Commerce student Whitney Johnson will take the role of vice chair for trials.

The official transition will occur at midnight, April 5.

Truetzel said he hopes the new executive board will continue to build upon the Committee’s successes from the past year, specifically pointing to passed amendments, transparency initiatives and educational issues.

For example, the Committee held an ethics forum last Thursday directed toward the Engineering School that was “outstanding,” Truetzel said.

“I think it could be a great model for going forward in honor education and the ethics that underpin the honor system. I encourage the new Committee to think about it carefully,” he added.

Rob Atkinson, outgoing vice chair for education, agreed that the outgoing Committee made impressive strides in terms of handling education, noting the issue of first-year education.

“We wanted to incorporate an online module for first-years, similar to the ones incoming students have to do before coming in the fall,” Atkinson said.

First-year students now must complete online modules concerning University computing, as well as alcohol and substance abuse.

“I think the online honor module will go a long way in creating a baseline of an idea of honor, and it will get the factual parts of honor out of the way,” Atkinson said. “Time on Grounds can be devoted more to discussion of honor and addressing more philosophical issues.”

The public summaries amendment, which was passed during the University-wide elections in February, also may help to foster education efforts, said Alex Carroll, outgoing Vice Chair for Trials. The amendment, which will allow brief case summaries to be released after decisions are reached, was a tangible achievement to show for the Committee’s goal to improve transparency, she said.

Carroll encouraged the incoming Committee to be more proactive about educating the University about the benefits of the honor system.

“So often our Committee is on the defensive, dealing with criticism,” Carroll said. “I’d like to see the future Committee to be able to take a step forward without being prompted.”

The outgoing Committee, Atkinson noted, was forced to cope with issues enduring from the previous term, as the controversial Semester at Sea case was left somewhat unresolved before the executive board transitioned, thus impeding the Committee’s early progress.

“It was leftover from the term before us and we spent a lot of time on it,” Atkinson said. “The new Committee won’t have a lot of these lingering issues. They will be in a better position and won’t be hampered by what we’ve left unfinished.”

Harris remains confident in the future of the Committee and its work.

“We’ve got a Committee coming in that’s very confident and enthusiastic about the goals that have already started to formulate,” Harris said. “I hope we use these goals this year to move in an exciting direction.”

Prospective students crowd Peabody Hall, which was the center of excitement Friday after releasing admission information. Photo by Mallory Noe-Payne.

Letters were mailed and decisions were posted last Friday — the class of 2014 has been admitted to the University. This year’s admissions statistics show a continuing trend of selectivity, high in-state ratio and impressive high school academic achievement.

Overall, the composition of the class of 2014 is comparable to years past, but the Nursing and Engineering Schools both saw dramatic rises in the number of applicants, which may have been caused by the nation’s poor economic state, Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts said.

“This is likely the result of intensive recruiting efforts and greater national interests in these careers due to the economic downturn the last several years,” Roberts said.

Roberts expressed enthusiasm about the applicant pool the University received.

“It’s been an extraordinary year as we have seen the largest and perhaps deepest applicant pool in our history,” he stated in an e-mail.

Peabody Hall’s blog posted preliminary admission statistics last Friday, which were obtained from the Office of Institutional Assessment. According to these statistics, the University received 22,516 total applications this year, an increase from last year’s 21,839 applications. The number of in-state applications was 7,964, nearly half of the 14,652 out-of-state applications received.

The total amount of offers given, according to the University’s Admissions Office, was 6,907 — almost 600 more than the 6,331 offers given last year. Regardless, the Office of Undergraduate Admission maintains the same goal of enrolling 3,240 first-year students come this fall.

The University traditionally has offered in-state applicants a higher admission percentage than out-of-state applicants. This rings true for the Class of 2014. The admission percentage for in-state applicants was 42.4 percent this year, while 24 percent of out-of-state applicants were admitted, according to Peabody Hall’s official blog. Meanwhile, 24 percent of out-of-state students were accepted into the University. Similarly, 42.7 percent of in-state students and 22 percent of out-of-state students were admitted to the class of 2013 last year.

Of the students that received offers this year, the middle 50 percent scored between a 1300 and a 1480 on the reading and math portions of the SAT. The majority of these students — 93.8 percent — also were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.

Gov. Bob McDonnell issued an executive order Friday that will establish a commission on higher education reform, innovation and investment.

The commission will focus on increasing the number of degree-bearing Virginians by 100,000 through a period of 15 years, attracting more young people into the areas of science, technology, engineering and math. Moreover, the Higher Education Reform Commission will help with the development of “innovative ways to deliver quality instruction, cost-saving reform strategies and affordable new pathways to degree attainment for capable Virginians regardless of income or background,” according to a press release from McDonnell’s office.

McDonnell emphasized the importance of higher education in today’s society, given how far a college diploma goes in terms of helping graduates to obtain jobs.

“Businesses seek to operate where there are well-educated workers with the skills necessary to make their enterprises successful,” he stated in the press release. “With this in mind, it is imperative we do more to expand access and affordability at Virginia’s colleges and universities.”

The commission will not only benefit individual graduates, but also will benefit the commonwealth as a whole, he argued.

“Our Higher Education Commission will play a pivotal role in the effort to make Virginia a more-highly educated state where businesses seek to locate and good jobs are available to our citizens in the communities they call home,” he said.

The commission will be comprised of up to 30 members appointed by the governor. McDonnell also will delegate a chairman and one or more vice-chairmen from among the 30 members. The commission also will include the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Technology, the Secretary of Finance and the vice-chairman of the Council on Virginia’s Future, among other state leaders chosen by the governor.

The commission will create three committees to accomplish its goals. The Increased Degree Attainment, Financial Aid and Workforce Training Committee will deal with the increase in Virginian attendance and pursuit of a higher education. Meanwhile, the Implement Innovation and Cost Containment Committee will aim to improve higher education funding and analyze higher educational programs’ cost-benefits, and the Regional Strategies and Partnerships for Research and Economic Development Committee will work to increase the leveraging of research funding by Virginia’s colleges and universities.

The commission will submit a final report to the governor about its findings by Nov. 30.

Isaac Wood, the communications director of the Center for Politics and former Cavalier Daily opinion columnist, said those who are selected to be on the commission will be important in determining how the commission progresses.

“I think people should pay attention to the people he appoints to the commission,” he said. “We will know much more when we see the names he puts forth.”

It is likely, Wood said, that the commission will focus on efficiency and cutting costs. At the same time, however, he noted that the governor previously stated that Virginia public universities should not encounter many more severe budget cuts.

University Provost Arthur Garson expressed his enthusiasm about such a commission coming into effect.

“We are tremendously in favor of a commission of higher education reform,” he said. “We’re anxious to work with the state.”

Gov. Bob McDonnell signed his ninth executive order last Friday, establishing the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education Reform — a committee dedicated to higher education reform, innovation and investment. This order comes at a critical time for Virginia state-supported universities as public funding for higher education continues to decline in light of the state’s budgetary woes. “During the first decade of this century, Virginia’s state support for public colleges and universities was cut nearly in half on a per-student, constant-dollar basis,” McDonnell said. And in an effort to reduce the impact of these budget reductions for higher education, McDonnell added, “It is imperative we do more to expand access and affordability at Virginia’s colleges and universities.”
In addition to increasing access, the governor indicated that creating research opportunities and exploring new funding methods would be two other focus areas. Each topic warrants considerable discussion, but the public financing issue requires immediate attention. Although the recession limits the General Assembly’s ability to increase funding to state colleges in the short term, the commission ought to compare higher education funding in Virginia with other top-tier state college systems across the country, such as California, North Carolina and Texas. Virginia’s public universities deserve the opportunity to compete on an even footing with their counterparts in other states.

The commission also must not be afraid to tackle more policy-orientated questions related to higher education, including how to strengthen the quality of education offered at Virginia’s universities. Commission members, of course, should be wary of overstepping boundaries — one of the best aspects of Virginia’s public colleges is their autonomy in making most administrative decisions. The commission instead can look for ways that the state can support the academic missions of these colleges, as opposed to dictating policy. These measures could include giving colleges more flexibility with their in-state to out-of-state student ratios, in addition to providing stronger channels of communication between colleges and the state regarding public financing. In turn, more communication has the potential to increase consistency and transparency of funding allocations. Moreover, the commission could facilitate interaction among colleges and offering universities resources for partnerships with other public or private organizations.

Thankfully, McDonnell has recognized the urgent need to address the current issues facing higher education in Virginia. The state’s universities and community colleges will produce more than 100,000 graduates during the next 15 years, McDonnell said. Institutions with such a strong social function should not be overlooked in favor of more prominent political issues.

The Honor Committee’s incoming executive committee members should take advantage of their different backgrounds

The Honor Committee elected its new executive committee for the upcoming year this past weekend, and the new members are set to take the reins from current Chair David Truetzel and company April 5. Law student Charlie Harris was elected chair, and third-year Commerce student Whitney Johnson will serve as vice chair of trials. Graduate Education student Maggie Thornton fittingly was elected vice chair of education, and the new vice chair of community relations will be third-year Architecture student Danielle MacGregor. Second-year Nursing student Page Dunbar will serve as vice chair of investigations.

Remarkably, not one of these students represents the College. Choosing Committee leadership from other schools — whose students occasionally feel marginalized by organizations comprised mostly of College students — provides the Committee with the opportunity to strengthen the community of trust throughout the entire University. With Harris as chair, for example, the Committee should be able to further its communication and interaction with the graduate schools. Because undergraduates are often more absorbed in their ‘possible to connect with these different communities across Grounds. Building stronger relations with different undergraduate and graduate schools at the University is one example of how the Committee’s education and outreach initiatives can have more specific goals and take on newfound significance.

A few weeks ago, Gerald L. Baliles, director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs, told a Roanoke ballroom full of Virginia newspaper people about a report called “Old Media, New Media and the Challenge to Democratic Governance.” You can read it at the Miller Center’s Web site, if you like.

For the past year, the center has studied and hosted discussions about the decline of American newspapers, what effect that might have on American government and what might be done about it. Baliles describes it as “a distillation of issues” rather than a ground breaking investigation. Nothing will be new to anyone who’s paid attention to what’s been going on in media over the past three decades or so. But it does put a lot of information in one place and it does layout some issues pretty clearly. I won’t go over the whole 59-page report, but I want to touch on a few points about the state of newspapers that have some relevance to the newspaper you’re reading now.

Evolving technology has been both a boon and a bane to newspapers. It has given them greater reach and more efficiency, but it has also given them increasing competition. There was a time when anyone looking for news, politics, sports, comics, classified ads, or crossword puzzles found them in a local newspaper. Now all that is available on line and most of it is available on a 24-hour television station. As readers and revenue have gone elsewhere, newspapers have cut back. They have cut the size and the number of pages they print and the percentage of those pages they cover with news. They’ve cut back on the size of their coverage areas. They’ve cut the number of days they publish. They’ve cut the size of their news gathering staffs. And that’s the core of the problem that the pending death of newspapers poses for democracy. Whatever their shortcomings — and they are many — newspapers have more people out looking for news than television stations or radio stations or Web sites. More and more, other media have moved from chasing newspapers stories and perhaps expanding on them, to commenting about them. Much of what passes for news these days is actually opining about news.

Daniel Hallin, chairman of the department of communication at the University of California, San Diego, wrote in the Miller Center report, “In my view, though, there is clearly a serious danger that the whole pyramid of opinion and commentary that dominates the new media will be based on an inadequate base of real reporting.”

The principal applies to The Cavalier Daily in a couple of ways. The paper doesn’t have nearly as much trouble getting people to write columns as it does finding people to write news. News is more work. Even so, The Cavalier Daily has more people covering this community than any other news organization does.

I used to cover higher education for a newspaper with a circulation of about 100,000. There were five colleges and universities in town. In theory I covered them and the local community college and the state college system and kept an eye on the system’s flagship campuses. That’s one reporter split about nine ways. Each of those campuses had a student newspaper. Some were better than others, but all of them had more than one-tenth of a reporter on the job.

In theory, at least, that meant more people watching what the people in power were doing. And that, after all, is one of the main reasons we have a press in the first place. I say “in theory” because student papers share a shortcoming with other newspapers — and some other forms of media. They rely on official sources a lot. In the early 1970s when, legend has it, investigative reporters were bringing down presidents and ending wars and doing all sorts of anti-establishment things, government officials made up more than 80 percent of those newspaper’s sources. I’m not sure it’s gotten a lot better.

The antidote for that, according to the gospel of the internet, is an army of citizen journalists. But there are a lot of problems with that. Most of those folks don’t do journalism full time. Individuals’ interests are likely to be individual, so a lot of news will slip through the net. And a lot of unreliable information will get scooped up.

The Miller Center report looked at a number of potential ways out of the dying newspaper predicament. One of them is some form of public funding. The dangers of that were illustrated at Virginia Tech recently when the student government considered pulling funding because it didn’t like the way The Collegiate Times operated.

Another possibility is training the older citizens who commonly attend local government meetings to be effective citizen journalists. I doubt that will help the University community very much.

Tim Thornton is The Cavalier Daily’s ombudsman. His column usually appears on Mondays.

Recently, major celebrities in the fashion industry have taken it upon themselves to speak out against the use of unrealistic models in their campaigns. One does not need to look far for these comments: New York Magazine headlines read “Anna Wintour Says Vogue Does Not Photoshop Girls Thinner, and Now Aims to Show a Wider Variety of Body Types,” or as Times Newsline headlines read, “Michael Kors Unveils New Age Limit for Models,” a proposition Kors advanced due to the perceived prevalence of poor body images in relation to the fashion industry. In an age when Photoshop and airbrushing have seemingly run rampant in magazine advertisements and models are making headlines not due to their physical beauty but from deaths resulting from reckless dieting schemes, these actions could not have come at a better moment. To illustrate the disparity between reality and the images the fashion industry chooses to display, The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness published this harrowing statistic: “The average woman is 5’4” and weighs 140 pounds. The average model is 5’11” and weighs 117 pounds. Most fashion models are thinner than 98% of American women.” These unrealistic images also affect men. Popular culture images give men the desire to be more muscular and cause them to work out and diet excessively. This is illustrated from the Alliance’s statistic that “Time Magazine reports that 80% of all children have been on a diet by the time that they have reached the fourth grade.”

In her book “Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children”, Susan Bordo notes that “digital modification of images means that we are being educated to shift our perception of what a normal woman’s body looks like, so that we see our own bodies as wanting because they do not match an unrealistic, polished, slimed and smoothed ideal.” This analysis on the usage of digitally modified images of bodies unfortunately comes as no surprise after this October’s Ralph Lauren scandal involving an overly digitally edited version of model Valentina Zelyaeva. What is truly sad about these images is that the models are already thin, and then edited to be thinner. The use of digital editing in the fashion industry is controversial in itself and is used to correct cellulite, blemishes, scars, and so forth in attempts to form the perfect body. The use of Photoshop in the fashion industry insinuates that either there is something wrong with the way someone looks, or there is an image that is impossible to naturally attain that the fashion industry related company wishes to project. Both reasons are not appropriate when dealing with human bodies.

There is hope yet for the fashion industry. With the recent push for realistic looking models in advertisements, some businesses in the industry are trying to take control of the situation. With the revolutionary Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, to the recent plus sized issue of V magazine, readers can now see plus-sized models proudly displaying their bodies. It is interesting to note that a recent study by Arizona State University “found that overweight consumers demonstrated lower self-esteem — and therefore probably less enthusiasm about buying products — after exposure to any size models in ads (versus ads with no models). Also, normal-weight consumers experienced lower self-esteem after exposure to moderately heavy models, such as those in Dove soap’s ‘Real Women’ campaign, than after exposure to moderately thin models.” However, the effect remains to be seen because the problem was not created immediately. In the book Starving for Salvation: The Spiritual Dimensions of Eating Problems Among American Girls and Women, Michelle Mary Lelwica traces a connection between Twiggy’s first appearance as a model in 1967 at 5’7 and 91 pounds and the dietary guideline issued by the federal government ten years later warning Americans of overeating. Lelwica states that this guideline gave rise to the subsequent diet industries.

There is, however, the potential beginning of a movement to create a positive change in the way that people view their bodies. Students at the University have been speaking out against the societal pressure to be thin with Celebrate Every Body Week, and the silent protest of Day Without Mirrors. No person should have to feel inadequate based on fictional representations of bodies. It is important that prominent societal leaders speak out against the unrealistic usage of models. Maybe then, and with repeated exposure to reality and more campaigns of “real women” society can overcome the pressures to be thin.

Ashley Ford’s column appears on Tuesdays. She can be reached at a.ford@cavalierdaily.com.

Chivalry is dead. This phrase usually carries a negative connotation as men are becoming less and less knightly in their conduct. On the other hand, this saying can also represent the progress that women’s rights have made since the Dark Ages and the fact that some men are now more fully aware of this progress.

Usually, it is not worth the effort to argue against the belief that men have grown increasingly lazy. I could leave it at that, but that would only further this misconception. Men still perform the minimal tasks that would be considered chivalrous today. Most male students still hold doors for people behind them and still pay for the entire check on dates.

Admittedly, there are many aspects of chivalry which have been lost. We do not stand when a lady enters a room, we seldom offer help to strangers we pass, and we surely do not carry books to class for our female counterparts. But is all this really the death of chivalry or just a modern-day revision?

An example of a chivalrous act that should gradually disappear is the tradition of asking a father’s blessing for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Some claim that the origin of this tradition dates back to the times when marriage was a business proposal between the groom and the bride’s father, essentially belittling the woman to a bargaining chip. In modern times, one could interpret a father’s blessing as what the father sees fit for a daughter not wise enough to make the correct decision on her own. In either case, the agreement is first made between the man and the father, instead of then between the man and the woman. With this in mind, is it really disrespectful if men put the woman first and propose before asking the father? It might be more disrespectful if a man were to blindly follow the tradition.

There are also everyday, minor, opportunities for chivalry that are intentionally glossed over. For instance, you can be sure to see female students standing on a crowded bus while there are many male students sitting down. Although the days of high school lockers are far gone, it was rare — and surely now it is still rare — for a guy to carry his girlfriend’s books to her class. Are these examples of men being impolite and apathetic, or is there some reason behind this?

The answer is that most men do not define honor or proper behavior by these simple actions. Times have changed and there are new standards now and these old customs are not part of them.
One example of how times have changed is the fact that women now comprise a greater percentage of the workforce; female employment has increased drastically in manual labor and dangerous jobs that were once only given to men. Anecdotally, it seems as if female involvement in the ROTC programs is increasing by the day. The media has also downplayed the role of the passive and polite Mrs. Cleaver persona in favor for more assertive female characters like Sandra Bullock’s Oscar-winning portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy. Those are just two examples of how the role and perception of women in our society have changed in the past few decades, let alone the rights that are now standard but had to be fought for, such as the right to vote. Women are no longer the lonely princesses in waiting of their knights in shining armor. Now they are strong and independent Fionas working as equals alongside their socially awkward Shreks.

However, there are still guys who will do anything for their damsel in distress. There are also some men who see a girl walk onto the bus and fail to offer up their seat because they do not perceive an immediate reward of sex in return for their actions.

There is also a third class of gentlemen that understand that a lady does not always need to be protected and sheltered by a male figure. These gentlemen extend the same courtesy to women that they would for anyone else, such as holding a door, without going overboard with chauvinistic gestures, like texting a girl every five minutes to make sure that she is okay. These men subscribe to a new definition of chivalry. They believe that women should be given enough room to be independent but would still occasionally like to get the royal treatment. I would include myself into this group, but who knows what women want?

Hung Vu’s column appears Tuesdays. He can be reached at h.vu@cavalierdaily.com.

Virginia’s former leading scorer is currently working out in New York in preparation for a potential NBA career. He announced his decision to leave the program a week ago. Photo by Mallory Noe-Payne.

At the conclusion of the Virginia men’s basketball team’s season, coach Tony Bennett held player meetings with each individual on the team.

Or, in the case of Sylven Landesberg, Bennett met with the player’s parents. But while Steven and Ingrid Landesberg discussed their son’s future with the first-year coach, Sylven was already back in New York, preparing for the NBA Draft. In other words, he was absent. Again.

Bennett suspended Landesberg for the remainder of the season March 5, immediately prior to Virginia’s regular season finale against Maryland the next day. At the time, Bennett said the reason for the suspension was that “Sylven has failed to live up to his academic obligations.”

Landesberg could not be reached for comment, but a source close to the team, who spoke on condition of anonymity, clarified the circumstances surrounding the former Cavalier’s suspension. The source said Landesberg already had been placed on academic warning heading into the spring semester, meaning he would have to pass all four of his classes to stay eligible for the fall 2010 semester. Junior forward Will Sherrill said Bennett asked each player sign a contract at the beginning of the spring semester to “pick up their academic performance.” Landesberg, according to the source, complied with Bennett’s request. The coaches apparently kept close watch over Landesberg’s performance in three of his courses — but not art class, which is graded primarily on participation. Landesberg had not attended a single art class, the source said, until he suddenly showed up one day, much to the professor’s surprise. The professor warned Landesberg that he was in danger of failing, then relayed this information to the athletic coordinator. The news then reached Bennett, who acted on the information and decided to suspend his team’s leading scorer.
Sherrill said Landesberg should have known he was headed down the wrong path.

“We all know how seriously coach Bennett takes academics,” Sherrill said. “So I think [Landesberg] knew there was a strong possibility he’d be suspended.”

Sherrill added that several other players, most notably senior Jamil Tucker — who took an indefinite leave of absence before the season began and was kicked off the team eventually because of academics — struggled academically during the fall semester, which all but forced Bennett to impose a stricter academic policy on his players.

The contract required “a lot of effort things — being on time to class, going to class, being on time to study hall, making sure you get to your tutors,” Sherrill said. “And that was something [Landesberg] obviously violated.”

During his tenure at Washington State, Bennett said the football coach made his players get signatures from their professors to confirm they had attended class. Considering Virginia’s academic turmoil, Bennett was asked if he would resort to such a strategy with his basketball team.

“Maybe I’m old school, but I think we’re pretty efficient,” Bennett said of his coaching staff’s management of his players’ academics. “But am I gonna check every single class every player’s in? Boy, I don’t know if I’m gonna bear down that — but there certainly will be accountability and there will be checks. And we receive feedback from teachers — there’s progress reports, all those kinds of things.”

The source said because Landesberg was going to fail his art class, he most likely would have been ineligible for the fall semester. Returning to Virginia, therefore, was not a feasible option for a player who already had considered making the leap to the pros after his freshman season, when he was named ACC Rookie of the Year. Sherrill, meanwhile, confirmed that Landesberg already had NBA aspirations and that the suspension made his decision to leave the program that much easier.

“Talking to Sylven — even if the suspension hadn’t happened — in talking to him, he might have been gone anyway,” Sherrill said. “He didn’t necessarily say that, but I could kind of tell talking to him that he was really thinking about it.”

That being said, both Sherrill and Bennett said Landesberg was not forced to leave the program; rather, he was welcome back. And though Bennett said he did not advise Landesberg about his draft status, the coach did say the two had talked about the guard’s potential in the professional ranks.

Although Landesberg’s scoring production will be missed, Bennett said he hopes the player’s time at Virginia helped improve his overall game and prepared him for the next step in his career.

“He became a much better shooter; his shot became more consistent,” he said. “Certainly you work on your range, becoming good defensively — that’s all part of developing players so they have that chance.”

That chance, Sherrill said, already has begun for Landesberg. The 6-foot-6 guard currently is working out in New York and will put his name in the NBA Draft. And though Sherrill said he will miss his friend and former teammate, he added that the rising senior class, including Sherrill, guard Mustapha Farrakhan, forward Mike Scott, guard Jeff Jones and even guard Sammy Zeglinski, who redshirted his first year, are eager to assume bigger roles next season without their undisputed best player.

“Not only do we think we have a good chance to be successful next year, but also we’ve got a chance to lay a foundation for the future of this program. Coach Bennett’s first class is coming in — it’s a big class,” Sherrill said. “We can teach those guys, mentor those guys so that they can carry this program to have great success. Those guys are gonna be the guys that really build this program, but that doesn’t mean that next year we’re not gonna be working as hard as we can to have a great team. And there’s a real sense of urgency right now amongst us older guys that we’ve only got one more chance, and we’ve gotta make the most of it.”

—Jack Bird contributed to this article